#3. I’ve swam with hundreds of wild dolphins in the ocean while four months pregnant. Apparently, their echo location can sense two heartbeats in one body, so the dolphins –instinctively protective– hovered nearby. Surreal.

#4. We used a hydrophone to eavesdrop on humpback whales hauntingly serenading each other during mating rituals, within a two-mile radius of our boat. I also caught a uku (grey snapper) while deep bottom fishing, and puked off the starboard twenty-seven times.

#5. The following morning, I stepped on an octopus.

#6. I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1999 until 2004…

Copenhagen, Denmark

#7. … and studied in the International Culturale Studiet program at Roskilde University in Denmark for one year.

#8. While at Roskilde, I worked closely with human-rights violation workers and other students, to write a 379-page in-depth research report, which spanned two semesters, on illegal female circumcision being performed on young Somali girls in Sweden.

#9. Some of my treks: London, Paris, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Canada. In the U.S; NYC, Hawaii and Los Angeles. Tennessee and Texas. North Carolina, and the Great Smoky Mountains.

#10. I yearn for a clunky antique typewriter.

#11. I am fluent in Danish, and semi-fluent in French, Swedish and Norwegian.

#12. The mysterious, the esoteric and the obscure fascinates me; ancient Egypt, Freemasonry, aliens, genetic manipulation. The truth is out there.

#13. Usually while participating on community boards, I browse with my iPod because I am also nursing my daughter.

At one point M. and I were bobbing in the waves and looking down down down through our snorkeling masks — (the depths became murkier the further down you strained to look, there literally was a LINE where the water became seriously deep %$&*), and all we saw wayyyy down there were these two grey bellies gliding steadily toward us. At first it looked like a pair of sharks and we pooped our pants a bit.

Oh, the marine biologists — the same guys that required us to sign a release form before taking us out, in case, you know, we got devoured or something — suggested we act 'sociable' around the dolphins by holding hands to gain trust.